Pub Date Tomorrow: To Fetch A Thief

“Uncle Rio’s,” said Bernie, backing into a little parking space in one move, smooth and easy. Driving with Bernie: always a pleasure, unless the tools had to come out. “You’ll like this.”

I was liking it already. Me and Bernie together – what was not to like?

Uncle Rio’s was on a dark street not far from the fairgrounds. The only bright lights around were the top of the ferris wheel, spinning slowly in the night, and the neon signs in Uncle Rio’s window. It was a bar, of course: I can smell them from miles away, miles away being kind of far unless I’ve missed something. What do bars smell like? Stale beer, burned grease, puke. Hey! They go together! A strange thought, not my usual … I wondered …

And was still wondering when we went into Uncle Rio’s. It turned out to be one of those dark skinny joints, a long bar on one side, a row of tables on the other, a little dance floor at the end. No dancing happening at the moment, probably a good thing, since dancing sometimes gets me going. There was only one woman in the place, drinking down at the end of the bar. A few big guys sat by the beer taps, big guys with cut-off denim jackets, maybe bikers. The bartender serving them had a tattoo on the side of his face; a cigarette dangled from his mouth even though I was pretty sure there was no smoking in Valley bars. He looked at us, saw Bernie, and said, “You son of a bitch.”

The big guys turned and gave us tough-guy stares. The biggest said, “Want us to take care of this dude, Rio?”

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Barb is drawing a blank, too, but as I said yesterday, she is not overly creative.

We got side tracked last night, and ended up watch Hachi, A Dog's Tale on Hallmark channel. Did anyone else watch it? Barb often gets a little teary over movies, but she was blubbering like a baby over that one. The movie, with Richard Gere, is an American rendition of the true story of Hachiko, an Akita in Japan. The dog would meet his person at the train station every evening, and after he failed to return one day, due to his death, the dog continued to wait for hime every day for 9 years. They have a bronze statue of him at the train station, and Hachiko is the national symbol of loyality.

B. – Right on! We Plunderers have proven ourselves to be very collaborative. That Quilt (a thing of beauty is a joy forever) is a perfect example. So is Mom's Bookworm game, which passed the 6 million mark last night. There will for sure be more collaboration needed on that game.

How fun it would be for us all together to come up with a name for the next book.

Barb: I hope that your sister has a new hackerless email account. I was thinking about email messages from credit card companies and banks that the hackers could see. Hopefully she has notified everyone with a new address.

The SO of Melanie's OTAS finally has her post up yesterday at 4:25 PM.

Rio: We aren't wimps. It would be fun if the title of the fourth book had been created by the Plunderers.

Stover!… You know how it will turn out….snort!…A few of us will suggest titles and others will sit around and say “Oh that’s a good one”… grunt! … I like the idea of a true Contest, but that’s just Me….wheeze!

Bee, Barb's sister actually helped the hackers. They said they were hotmail and she needed to update her info, so she gave them everything they needed. Barb was surprised, because she is a sharp person. She is hoping she can get her contacts before everyting is closed out.

Melanie, What don't you like about that sort of movie? A little too sappy?

Rio: To me someone saying, "Oh that is a good one" is a contribution. The reason for a contest would be for a prize but the prize for me in a collaboration would be to have the title created by the group.

Barb and Maggie: I did see that movie a couple weeks ago – cried and whimpered throughout – that's why Melanie doesn't like to watch those kind of movies.

I've already got a couple ideas for titles and haven't even been trying yet. Okay, they are kinda dumb ideas, but nonetheless. I'm with Rio. How do you collaborate on a title? Everybody break up into groups of 3 or 4, each bring one word and then we'll put them together? Hmmmnnn.

The mailman must have been delivering a package to one of my neighbors.

By "publicity" I suppose I'm thinking of a dustjacket to the fourth book that has the quilt on the back flap…and something about the Plunderers made the quilt for Chet and created the title to that volume. (Only an idea in my head. Spence et al are, of course, the final arbiters.)

Actually, we really don't know if there is a contest or a prize. Look closely at the title (question mark) and the emphasized (pink) sentence under yesterday's post.

Barb is on DL today. She did something to her back yesterday, and can hardly walk today. She is sort of bent over and moving like a very old person. Good excuse to sit and read. Now if TFAT would just arrive…..

I'm going to agree with Rio that there are some of us that would simply say "That's a Good One" when it comes to thinking up a title for the new book. I can say that because I am one of those dogs that are not creative in a lot of areas, neither is my mom.

However, I am not saying that we should form a collaboration just because mom and I are not very creative. We are neutral on the subject, but we'll be one of those that say, "That's a Good One" if you need us to be.

Give some thought, though, if a collaborative effort would cause some hurt feelings.

I will do my best to help Barb, and if I am in charge of the martini(s) it will definitely be shaken not stirred.

Melanie, we forgot to tell you – last week Kevin Tibbles did a piece on the night time news call "Making a Difference" They featured a woman who was working with school kids and doing recycling. They were reclaiming books, making compost from school lunches and lots more. You know, dumpster diving on a grand scale. Anyway, point of story – she was from Glen Ellyn, which reminded us of you. The Glen Ellyn part, not the dumpster diving part.

Pigs! As it turns out, the critter that tore up my front yard was not a wild boar, but our nasty neighbor's pet pit. (She has somewhere between 11 and 13)

About four years ago, the neighbor's dog came on to our property and my best friend Sam bit it. (Serves him right). Mom jumped in the car, took the Muffin to the emergency vet an hour away, paid for all the bills, brought over cookies and cases of canned dog food. THEN this lady made a big stink with Animal Control, Sam got arrested, there were fines and invisable fences and the whole ordeal cost mom many thousands of dollars.

Wolfie!…Are you going to make your neighbors pigs pay for the damage they did to your yard???…grunt! …I say take it out in Bacon!…sniff!

MagPie!… We are only about half way done with A Perfect Crime… snort!… We can’t tell if Rodger is insane or just too smart for his britches….grunt!…I’m starting to dislike Ned a lot – he cries too much…heh!

Rio – yes. I would like my neighbor to be responsible for the damage done by Porky. That darned pit tore up my entire front yard. It looks as if someone came by with a roto tiller. Now I have to nap on lumpy grass and dirt. Crap.

Actually I do have bacon in the frig. I don't always. I was thinking that Wolfie's neighbor (and what is the zoning law around there regarding pets?) may be inordinately fond of bacon rather than of pigs merely calling them "pets."

Did anyone watch the new tv series The Event? The pilot was on last week but I didn't see it. It's scheduled to be repeated on SyFy and Bravo (don't know what's going on with that) and the first episode is tonight on–I think–NBC.

Event!…We did – we watched it…snort!….It’s right up your alley Stover!…heh!…Someone said we will see how long we can stick with it because it might turn into a Fringe sort of thing where we get lost in the time lines … snort!

Mom just finished reading the first chapter of the book – that had been posted a few days ago. She was ready to keep going but that was all there was. Bummer. But tomorrow her Kindle will have lots more for her to read.

Thanks Rio. I'll watch both the pilot and the first episode tonight. I can let you know what I think of it if you want me to.

I just had a dialog box come up on my screen saying that my email account needed my username and password. I didn't fill it out but closed it. Then I clicked on the icon for my mail and it turned on as usual. Barb: Is that what happened to your sister? Yikes!

Mom is making a very good dinner. Red Hatteras wine, steamed spinach, nice chicken sausage from Sam's Dad's company, and most important, corn on the cob. Mom couldn't eat corn on the cob for a year or more. Now she has her nice new tooth and can't wait!

Siber-H – we pre-ordered TFAT and Louise Penny's new one, both out on the 28th, and arrival date is estimated 10-2 from Amazon. Bluecat won't do that again. Next time we'll go to B&N, go directly to B&N, not passing go, etc.

Bee, From the way Sally described it, she received an email, supposedly from her email provider, saying she needed to update all her information or her account would be closed in 24 hours. So she filled in everything they asked for, including her password. Then they were able to go in and change her password to something new and she was blocked out. Then they sent that bogus letter saying she needed money to every person in her contacts, and if you responded it was going to them rather than my sister. If you said you would help they were going to tell you where to wire the money.

Wookie, I see that you are present. I never heard from you regarding The Fallen Man (or maybe missed it). Did you read that one? You are the one that introduced us to Tony Hillerman, so want your opinion. Will go bach and check out more. Our little library has a bunch of his books.

I've got my cap on for tonight's game also. Jimenez is pitching and I want him to get his 20th win.

RIO!!! The powers that be are making some sort of weird mistake and putting the Rockies games on one of my tv channels. I'll get to see the game just like yesterday. Maybe they figure it is the end of the season so what the heck.

I really think pigs are only good for one thing. But then I've never lived with one.

We finished both Into the Dark and the first Louise Penny yesterday. Now we're starting Craig Johnson as recommended on the blog. The Sheriff is drinking and driving on the 3rd page. Hmmmm. Sounds like Alice's kind of guy.

Event!…If “The Event” starts in any way shape or form to look like “Lost”, we are out of there!…snort! … I feel sad tonight watching the Rockies, even though this is not the final, final game….sniffle!

Barb and Maggie. I had to check with my dad about The Fallen Man because he first read it back in 1996 when it was first published. It was actually one of his favorites; very well plotted and a great twist at the end. Also the introduction of a new character, Bernadette Manuelito, who became an even more important character in later books.

Baseball!…We still have to figure out who to root for in the play-offs!…Wooooo!…. The Twins are tickling my toes…snort!…But then there is that Alice factor!….grunt!

Good Night All!…This means Artistic New Comers also!….snort!…Please all you regulars do your laundry regularly and keep those Nasty Bed Bugs Away – Because they do Bite! …dammit!…So take pre-cautions because you do NOT want Rockie and His Gang of Hillbilly friends in your house any time soon!…heh!!!

I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.

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